Tales of the Fire Prince and the Water Maiden
by fukaimoriMidori
Summary: Zutara. A series of ficlets on their relationship as it progresses throughout the series. Rated T because I don't trust myself.
1. Prologue

**Prologue: The Tale of The Fire Prince and the Water Maiden**

**NOTE: AS OF 13/12/2011, THIS SERIES IS GOING TO BE HEAVILY EDITED. **

**Finished A Levels, reread this and was horrified, so I'm slowly making my way through each chapter, editing it. Prologue has been pretty much left alone though.  
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><p>Once, there was a banished fire prince and a maiden of the water. They lived in a time of cruelty and war, where life was snuffed out as easily as a candle in a breeze.<p>

The prince was one who had learnt suffering from a young age, and led a painful and lonely life. For angering his father and king, he was stripped of his birthright, and banished from his nation. As a result, he was full of rage and pain and loss, and lashed at anyone who came in his way. Though he was not unduly cruel - for he knew enough the sufferings caused but violence - he failed to see the pain he inflicted on others through his words alone.

The water maiden had suffered many a loss at the hands of the fire warriors, and like the prince, was scarred by sorrow and loss and anger. However, unlike the prince, she was surrounded by loving family and friends. As a result, she was shaped by kindness and love, and could still see the good that existed in the world.

When the fire prince first met the water maiden, he was filled with pride and arrogance, and scorned her for her affinity with water and her lowly birth, failing to see her grace and warmth, as well as the pain that followed her like a shadow. Likewise, the water maiden was blinded to the prince's scars. Overcome by fear and hate, she could only see the enemy, and not the wounded boy he was. Over and over again, they met, and their harsh words and threats quickly changed to violence. Over and over again, they exchanged blows, both physical and verbal, until they were blind to all that was good about the other and were consumed with hate.

The fire prince suffered many blows and defeats, and eventually, he was stripped of all his pride and hate. For the first time, he saw the madness of his actions, and all the hurt he had inflicted on others. He begged the forgiveness of the water maiden, and softened by his sincerity, the water maiden forgave him.

However, the fire prince was then approached by a demon, tempting him with power and his lost honour and love. He then lost sight of his newfound heart, of the love that already surrounded him, and betrayed the water maiden.

Hurt, the maiden vowed never to be tricked by him again, and she hardened herself to the fire prince. Even after he realised the error of his ways and did the best to repair the damage of his actions, she blocked her ears from his sincerity, and her heart from his heat of his warmth.

As time passed, the fire prince grew more and more desperate for the maiden's approval, and the maiden relished his desperation. Eventually, she demanded revenge for the death of her mother - one caused by the cruelty of the fire warriors - and in order to regain her trust, he sought quickly to comply. As the maiden stared into the eyes of her mother's killer, determined to end his life herself, she saw herself, as much a monster as the murderer - a being wrapped in the hatred of the war. The prince, for the first time, saw the compassion that filled the girl and begin to fall in love with her. Likewise, the maiden began to see the good that laid within the prince and accepted him into her heart.

Eventually, the century-long war that ravaged the world ended. The fire prince and the maiden of water married and lived to a ripe old age, surrounded by their loving progeny.

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><p><strong>This one's gonna be a series of ficlets on Zutara. Was rewatching some Avatar episodes and seriously, there is so much evidence for a beautiful relationship between the two it's ridiculous she ended up with Aang instead. =( <strong>

**Full title of the series is 'Tales of the Fire Prince and the Water Maiden'.  
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**I wrote this in what I've termed the 'fairytale style' as a Prologue, because I've always liked fairytales and I don't know, it just seemed to _fit_.  
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**Suggestions for what I should tackle for the short fics after here are very much welcome.  
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	2. Chapter 1

**Edited as of 3/12/2011. Both Zuko's and Katara's tale has been expanded.  
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><p><em>Once, there was a banished prince.<em>

Zuko inhales deeply through his nose, holds his breath, and lets the air escape his mouth. Meditating, just as his uncle taught him.

Gradually, the movement becomes rhyhmic, natural. Easy, even. His mind concentrates on the image of the candles burning before him, slowly dissecting the burning flames; the orange glow from the yellow flame, and the blue-white center that burns cleanly.

Beneath its bandage, his left eye itches.

Zuko breathes, and tries very hard not to think. About his eye, his father, the impossible task laid ahead of him.

"Prince Zuko?"

Iroh's voice interrupts concentration. He feels it slip through his hands, like letting go of a net. Instead of the splash of water though, he feels the room heat up as the candles burn brighter.

"What is it, Uncle?" he asks through ground teeth.

"I was worried," Iroh replies. "How is your injury?"

"I'm _fine!_" Zuko snaps. "Just leave me alone!"

He snorts as the door closes, and shifts his focus back to the candles before him. He concentrates, trying to direct his anger - anger at the injustice heaped upon him, the humiliation, anger at himself and the world - into cold focus.  
><em><br>Capture the Avatar._

That is all he has to do. Capture an ancient, cowardly old man who did nothing to save his people. And he will regain his honour, his throne and birthright, and his father's love.

He remembers his father's voice, sharp and cutting, laced with poison.

_Suffering will be your teacher._

It has. It always will be.

Zuko breathes hard, and does his best to forget.

XXXXX

_And once, there was a maiden of the water and the moon._

Under the silver light of the full swollen moon, Katara breathes. She watches the black water lap at the edge of the iceberg she stands on.

_Push and pull._

She raises her arms and _pushes_ leaning forward as she does so. Obediently, the waters crest into a large wave and move away.

When she closes her eyes, she can almost hear a faint voice singing a song about the moon and the stars. Perhaps it is the ocean spirit.

She pulls, gently tugging it forward towards her, before pushing it back again. She repeats this motion, again and again, until it is as easy and rhythmic as breathing, until Katara and the shifting waters are one.

_If only_, she thinks.

_If I was a better waterbender, maybe mother wouldn't have died._

She closes her eyes, and the train of thought goes on and on and on.

_If I was better, maybe father would have taken me with him to fight in the war. If I was better, maybe father wouldn't have needed to leave at all. If I was better, maybe I could help end this stupid war._

_If I was better -_

Too many what ifs, too many maybes. As she moves the icy waters beneath her feet, Katara drowns in an ocean of grief.

"Katara?"

Sokka's voice breaks her dark thoughts. Her concentration slips, and the water splashes back down into the sea.

He lays a hand on her shoulder. "Spirits," he mutters. "You're _freezing_. How long have you been out here?"

And his voice, edged with concern and worry is like a lifeline. She's not choking or drowning anymore but is instead, being slowly pulled towards the surface and to land.

"Thank you," she whispers.

He is confused. "You've obviously been out here too long. C'mon."

He takes her hand and pulls her along, and Katara follows him home.


	3. Chapter 2

**The ****Fire**** Prince ****and ****the ****Water ****Maiden:**** Chapter**** Two  
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Katara's first reaction when she sees the looming ship is terror. It is like a reminder of her mother's death all over again.

"_Sokka__ look__ out_!" Her terrified shriek rips out of her body almost without her realizing it. Her brother, her stupid egotistical brother is right in front of the ship, ready to defend his family and home.

_Idiot._

To her relief, the ship stops just in front of her brother, and he collapses backwards, landing in a large pile of snow. Safe. Unharmed. Thank the spirits.

But it's not over.

The ship lowers it's boarding prow, and like emerging from the mouth of hell, the soldiers make their way down. And at their head is a boy, the only one without a mask on his face and she wishes he has the skull-like mask on. The scar on his left eye has healed, but it still looks red and raw, as angry as the expression on his face. It's a reminder of what these people, no, these _monsters _can do. It's like looking at her mother's corpse face all over again, the skin burnt and charred beyond saving.

She would cry if only she wasn't so afraid.

XXXXX

The first time Zuko sees the water tribe girl, he doesn't even notice her. She is just another face in the crowd as he scans for the Avatar.

When she next appears he realises she's a water bender. Woefully untrained, but she knows enough to turn his men into chunks of ice so thick it takes almost an hour to defrost them. And she is protecting the Avatar.

The next time they meet, he won't be ignoring her.


	4. Chapter 3

**The ****Fire ****Prince ****and**** the**** Water ****Maiden: ****Chapter ****Three**

**Author's note: I edited Zuko's bit and replaced it with another oneshot. It wasn't quite the same... beat, or note, or level as Katara's.  
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><p>That Fire Nation prince, Katara decides, is like a ghost.<p>

He always _always _seems to appear out of nowhere, absolutely resolute on capturing Aang.

A ghost, and one they cannot avoid.

When she slips into sleep, she dreams hard. She sees her mother again, telling her to look for her father. She sees the black looming figure turn to her, and he wears Zuko's face, his mouth twisted in a scowl, his left eye branded with a scar. She sees the contempt on his face, the fire that lives behind his gold eyes, in his blood, and she is afraid.

Sometimes the dreams change. Her mother will morph into another person. Sometimes, it's Sokka, or her father. Once, it was her grandmother. Usually it is Aang, who looks at her with wide pleading eyes.

When she wakes from these dreams, her bedding will be drenched in sweat. With still-shaking hands she will reach for her neck, touch the cool stone of her mother's necklace. And then, only then, will she shiver and look around, as if expecting the prince, ghost-like, to steal out from the shadows.

XXXX

Meditation is about peace. Serenity. Emptying one's mind of all thoughts and worries.

Lately, it hasn't really been working for Zuko.

He keeps thinking about the Avatar. Of the many times he's let the boy slip out of his fingers. His failures constantly taunt him. Every day the airbender walks free is another day he spends in exile and shame. He doesn't know how much longer he will be able to handle this.

Somehow, the Avatar and his friends have outsmarted and outlucked him, even though the boy can only bend air, and has only tapped on the fraction of his power as an Avatar. Even though the boy with the boomerang can barely fight, and the waterbender girl barely knows what she is doing.

He has trained himself for years. Long arduous hours, repeating each move until it becomes mechanical. Instinctive. His fire bending isn't just a tool; it's a part of him, like his hands and his feet.

It just doesn't make sense that he always loses.


	5. Chapter 4

**The Fire Prince and the Water Maiden: Chapter Four**

In all the time he has spent trying to capture the Avatar, Zuko has never ever really paid too much attention to the water tribe peasant.

He is certainly paying attention now.

Bound to the tree, the girl glares at him with baleful eyes. For the first time, he sees how lovely she is, the way her eyes are bluer than blue, a pretty contrast against her dusky skin. She is slight, slender and sleek like a graceful fish, or some other kind of water animal.

_Water._ And he remembers she is the enemy, not the first pretty girl he's had contact with in years, and certainly not one he can attempt to flirt with. She is from the Water Tribe, she is a bender, she is helping the Avatar, and this makes her an enemy three times over.

XXXXX

Tied to a tree, Katara curses her stupidity.

Why, oh why did she have to take the damn scroll? It was her pride, her own wounded moronic pride that made her sneak off alone to practice. If she weren't tied up to a tree, she would bang her head against a hard and unyielding surface. Like the tree she was tied to. That would make a good one.

Somehow, the pirates manage to leer and glare at her at the same time. Then Zuko steps towards her.

Her cheeks flush as she remembers him grabbing her wrists. His voice, low and husky. _I'll__ save __you __from__ the __pirates._ It is the closest she has ever gotten to him, and at that moment, she realises that despite his scar, he is very good looking.

"Tell me where he is, and I wont hurt you and your brother." And there is that voice again, soft and husky. She swallows hard. For some reason, it's a little difficult to speak.

"Go jump in the river," she forces out.

He bows his head, and for a moment, he doesn't look like the evil monster she knows him as. He looks soft, and lost.

"Try to understand," he says, and now, he is moving towards her. She can hear the wheedling tone in his voice and she remembers who he is; he is Fire Nation, he is the prince of the fire monsters, he has been hunting them to capture Aang, and this makes him an enemy three times over. So it doesn't matter how good he looks in the flickering light, or how many pretty words he throws at her. He is the enemy and a danger to them all.


	6. Chapter 5

**The ****Fire ****Prince ****and ****the ****Water ****Maiden:**** Chapter**** Five**

"I didn't think that the Water tribe girl was your type, Prince Zuko," Iroh says conversationally as he reached for another helping of duck.

At his words, Zuko spits out a mouthful of half-chewed rice and fish.

"What are you _talking _about Uncle?" he splutters.

"But I suppose she _is _very pretty," Iroh continues as he takes a sip of tea.

"Uncle," Zuko breathes in deeply, doing his best to resist the urge to set fire to something. "I do _not_ have any romantic feelings for that peasant."

One grey eyebrow rises. "Is that so? You really seemed to enjoy speaking to her just now."

"I was _interrogating_ a _prisoner_," Zuko spits.

"If you wish to put it that way," the old man replies. Absolutely serene, and apparently utterly oblivious to his nephew's distress, he takes another sip of tea. "You know Zuko, you won't win her affections by tying her to a tree. Why not give her some nice flowers instead?"

"GAH!"

XXXXX

"Katara."

Sokka sounds very serious, and Katara guesses he is in overprotective big brother mode again.

"Did those pirates do... Anything to you?"

"Well, they obviously captured me and tied me to a tree."

"Not like that!" Sokka snaps.

Her cheeks flush when she realises what he means.

"No! Ew. No! I mean, Zuko got a little weird at one point - "

"That two-headed rat viper got _what _at one point?" he shrieks.

"He didn't do anything! He just siddled up along the tree - " _looking __very __hot__ doing __so__ – _no _I__ can't__ have__ such __thoughts _"and tried to make me sell Aang out for mom's necklace. It's not a big deal."

She immediately realises it is the wrong thing to say.

"He WHAT? Does that guy have a bondage fetish or something? That is... GO TO YOUR ROOM YOUNG LADY and STAY THERE!"

"What the - you're not my dad Sokka!"

"If you hadn't stolen the scroll you wouldn't have gotten yourself in danger!"

"I said I was sorry! And no one got hurt in the end!"

"That _doesn't _excuse what you did! You put us all in danger and you risked our lives! You risked Aang's life! You risked yours! Did you even stop to think about what you did?"

"Okay, I admit I was irresponsible. But - "

"No buts! You were extremely stupid and you need to be punished!"

"What, listening to you trying to act like dad isn't punishment enough?"

"You watch your mouth young lady!"

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><p><strong>After all the previous angst-ridden chapters, it was so fun to do this one. I loved writing Iroh's and Sokka's dialogue, and I could really see this happening in my head. <strong>


	7. Chapter 6

Zuko has decided that he hates the North Pole. _Hates_ it.

For the love of Agni, why on earth would these grubby, backward peasants even _want_ to live in such a place? It's cold, desolate, cold, bleak, cold, cold, _cold_-

Almost as an afterthought, he remembers his breath of fire. He mutters a silent thanks to his uncle, concentrates, and inhales. Slowly, he warms his fingers, his hands, and lets the heat diffuse throughout his body.

Warmed, he straightens himself and takes in his surroundings. He is in a narrow passageway surrounded by walls of ice and snow.

He frowns and placed a hand on the wall behind him. It isn't his imagination. The wall is _slightly _warm, like there was something radiating heat on the other side.

He places both hands on the ice wall. There is a hissing sound as the wall begins to melt.

XXXXX

"Maybe we should get some help," Yue suggests as she watches Aang warily. The Avatar's eyes glow a brilliant silver.

"No, he's my friend," Katara reassures her. "I'm perfectly capable of protecting him."

"Well. Aren't you a big girl now."

At the sound of the new voice, her blood freezes, despite the warmth of the Spirit Oasis. It can't be. They haven't seen him for weeks, he hasn't haunted her nightmares for almost as long. He _can__'__t_ be here.

"No," she whispers aloud.

"_Yes_."

And there he is, as constant as a shadow. Like the ghost she thought him to be, he has followed them, has managed to steal into the North Pole, into this sanctuary.

"Hand him over," Zuko orders as he strides towards her. "And I won't have to hurt you."

At this, she bristles and shifts into a defensive position. She isn't a helpless little girl anymore. She is a Waterbender, and she can fight back.


	8. Chapter 7

Humans were built to be able to handle only too much, and Zuko is only human. It is too much, all top much. The heat of battle, the cold, and the sting of failure.

Zuko is tired, bone-tired. He is tired of searching, and fighting and failing, and searching all over again. Wash, rinse, and repeat.

He shifts, and he feels the ache of his bones, feels the protest of his muscles and still-raw injuries as he lies down on the raft.

"I'm tired," he whispers to his uncle.

"You should rest, Prince Zuko," Iroh says. Zuko wonders why his uncle keeps using the honorific. He is a prince by birth, but he is a prince with nothing; no throne, no Avatar, no future. The title is a reminder of his failures, but he can't feel a taunting edge to his uncle's words. Only warmth, and concern. Like how his uncle has always been.

"A man needs his rest," Iroh adds soothingly.

But words, no matter how kind, how well meaning, can't change his fate. Eventually, he has to get up, and he has to continue his search for the Avatar.

Zuko shuts his eyes and wishes it was all over.

XXXXX

The stillness before a battle may be awful, but it is nothing, _nothing_ compared to the aftermath.

The aftermath of a battle is when the losses are carefully counted and tabulated. How many homes were destroyed. How many people were injured. How many men are never coming home.

Katara remembers the last Fire Nation raid. Remembers the relief when she sees nobody has been hurt, and then coming home to see that the greatest loss has happened in her home.

This time, she helps the best she can, aiding the women as they heal and knit and mend the men whole.

At night, she lies in her bed, exhausted, but her mind won't let her rest. Again and again, she sees raw burnt flesh, sees split skin and sinew, limbs broken and bent at nightmarish angles, and if she breathes, she can almost, _almost_, smell the rust-iron traces of blood.

As she closes her eyes, she sees scarred skin, livid against pale flesh. Zuko.

During their fight though, he had been different. Katara knows, that as he has tracked them from one end of the earth to the other, he has changed, too. He isn't cocky and sure anymore. Like everyone else, he has grown tired. His movements had been stiffer than usual, and his eyes had been ringed by shadows. There had been bruises mottling his skin, and other wounds, angry and red and painful to see.

Like the healer she is, she thinks of those injuries and her hands itch instinctively to undo the damaged. But she is a warrior at the same time, and while it is her second nature to soothe, she would like to put a few more injuries on Prince Zuko's face.

He has destroyed her village, taken her mother's necklace, and snatched Aang from right under her nose. She won't let him take away anything from them ever again.


	9. Chapter 8

The war, Zuko has always been told, is a necessary one. It is wrong for the world to be divided so. The Fire Nation is merely showing the others the way to enlightenment, uniting the world under one flag. But the people of the Earth Kingdom are slow and stubborn and stupid, and the Water Tribes are just as foolish. The Fire Nation is like a parent, a well-meaning mother who is doing what is best for her children. But because the right thing to do is sometimes painful, the other nations, like ignorant children, scream and struggle and fight back. This war is their fault.

Zuko has been brought up to think this way. He is not heartless though; he isn't his sister. He knows that in a war, no matter how righteous, even the best of soldiers are injured, or worse.

But he has never thought of the people. Ordinary people, civilians, and the suffering the war has heaped on their backs. And now, he thinks of the mothers and sisters and daughters, so much like Song and her mother, who wait helplessly and hopelessly for the men to return. As each day passes, it is only more certain that they will not be coming home.

From the corner of his eye, Song reaches out a tentative hand towards him. It only takes him a split second to realise why, and he grabs her hand before she can touch his face.

He doesn't want her sympathy or her pity. This is _his _scar, private and painful, and none may go near it.

"It's okay," she says softly. She closes her eyes and when he looks at her, he can almost see her entire wretched past etched on her face like an open wound, so pained it almost hurts to look. "They've hurt me too."

With shaking fingers, she draws the hem of her robes. Zuko can't help the gasp that escaped his mouth as he sees the grotesque scars snake their way along the ruined skin of her calves. He remembers his own injury, the pain that came with it, and the infection that set in soon after, before finally, almost reluctantly, the wound began to heal. He wonders what it must have felt for this girl.

_I'm sorry._The words rise quickly to the tip of his tongue, and just as quickly, he bites them back. They are useless words, meaningless, and they will do nothing to ease her pain or his, and they won't stop this war.

He remembers his arrival at the Southern Water Tribe, all those long months ago, and again, he sees the desperately frightened faces of the villagers looking back at him. All of them, children and old women. And that waterbender girl. _Katara_, his mind supplies automatically.

He wonders when their men left, and how long they have been waiting for them to return, and how much longer they must wait still.

He thinks of Katara's rage and fury as she had fought him in the North Pole. She was only defending herself and all that is dear to her. For the first time, he sees himself and his people as monsters.

"Lee," Song says, and it takes Zuko a moment to realise that she is talking to him. He turns to her, and realises for the first time that she is very pretty. Her eyes, somehow, are wide and soft and trusting, even after the Fire Nation - _his _people - have razed her innocence to ashes. He wonders if they haunt her in her sleep too and wonders why she isn't as angry as him.

She's reaching another tentative hand towards him, and he flinches. She sees his reaction and misunderstands, and she draws back, hurt and apologetic at the same time.

He wants to tell her it isn't her fault, but his. She is like a lotus blossom, rising out of muddy, dirty waters, pure and lovely and unsoiled, while he is filth.

But he can't tell her this either, and he can't undo everything his people and his ancestors have done.

So instead, he stands.

"Thank you for the meal," he says stiffly, then turns, and leaves.

XXXXX

Katara and Aaang have been trudging along in silence, listening to the crunching rocks beneath each step, waiting and watching for some indication that they are nearing the end. As they walk, they're only all too aware of the torch's weakening light.

Katara has been thinking. There are many things she wants to accomplish, and dying is definitely not a part of her agenda. She hasn't seen her father for years now, hasn't shown her Gran Gran how much she's grown as a waterbender, she hasn't told Sokka how much she truly loves and cares for him, even though he's an annoying elder brother. She thinks about other things, like how she wants to see the end of this war and how tired she is of fighting. She's had to face the idea of dying before, of course, throughout her journey to the North Pole, but somehow, she'd always thought that if she _was_ going to die, it would be in battle, standing tall and proud before Fire Nation soldiers. She'd never ever thought that it would be like this.

"We're gonna run out of light any second now, are we?" Aang asks, breaking the silence and her thoughts.

Each step Katara takes feels sluggish and heavy, like she's walking through quicksand. "I think so," she says softly.

"Then what are we gonna do?"

"What _can_ we do?"

Katara steps towards Aaang, and she thinks about how she wouldn't like to die, unloved and alone. She knows he doesn't want to, but she would like to know what it would feel like to be kissed. As she moves in close, she sees the round smoothness of his cheeks. She smells, beneath the sweat and dirt, the sweetness of his skin, like mother's milk.

_He's only twelve,_ she thinks. A child. She keeps forgetting how young Aang is sometimes. He's too young to have the fate of the world on his shoulders. Too young to die.

But then, so is she.

She places a hand on his, and as they move towards each other, she closes her eyes. She can smell the smoke and ash of the torch, and hears the crackle of flames. Without warning, she thinks of Zuko. He is so different from Aang, all sharp angles and rage. In her mind, she sees him as she last saw him in the North Pole, tired and bruised and burned, the most vulnerable she has seen him. She remembers him sidling towards her as she is tied up to a tree. As her lips brush Aang's, she wonders, very briefly, just what the fire prince's lips would feel like against hers.

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><p><strong>Okay, that took forever to get up. I remember writing Zuko's half ages ago, and finishing it fairly quickly. It was harder writing Katara's part, not sure why. <strong>

**'The Cave of Two Lovers' was, to me, one of the most significant episodes for Zuko's kickstart into growing out of a brat and into someone a little smarter. I know Song's a one-time character but I'd still like to think she impacted him that much. **

**On the other hand, the episode was fodder for all Kataang fans, which made it way harder to incorporate the Zutara element.  
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